Watching Sunday's NFL playoff games with a born-to-be-silver-and-blue fan of the Dallas Cowboys, complete with a Jason Witten jersey, helped to understand the frustration of Cowboys fans who thought after Jerry Jones bought America's team and won back-to-back Super Bowls it was going to be easy.
It hasn't been, of course, but the work in progress made for one of the greatest games in recent years.
Dak Prescott and Aaron Rodgers were like ace fighter pilots, and in the end Rodgers was the top gun.
Both played with great intensity and Prescott looked like anything but a rookie. But down the stretch when the Fox television cameras focused on Rodgers' eyes, there was no doubt he was the seasoned veteran, and his 36-yard pass to Jared Cook to set up Green Bay's winning field goal was what legends are made of.
It ended a great season for the Cowboys, who lucked into drafting Prescott with a fourth-round pick last summer.
Prescott was a very good quarterback at Mississippi State and even considered trying the NFL after his junior season. But scouts told Prescott he needed to go back to college and they told him exactly what he needed to work on.
At that point, Prescott was known as a dual threat who was quick to rely on his legs. He passed for 3,449 yards his junior season, but he also ran 210 times for 986 yards. He passed for 27 touchdowns and had 11 interceptions.
Prescott went to work, and he passed for 3,793 yards, 29 touchdowns with 5 interceptions his senior season. He did run, but only 160 times for 588 yards.
In eight playoff games so far this year, the team with the best quarterback has won.
Granted, it took the Oakland Raiders having to start rookie third-teamer Connor Cook to make the Houston Texans' Brock Osweiler the best quarterback, and in that wild-card game Osweiler only passed for 168 yards. Cook's lack of experience was obvious from the first snap to the last.
So the four quarterbacks left standing are four of the better ones in the league and all of them play for the team that drafted them out of college. Three of them -- Tom Brady, Ben Roethlisberger and Rodgers -- appear to be on the bullet train to the Hall of Fame.
Atlanta's Matt Ryan, drafted by the Falcons with the third pick of the 2008 draft, is the only one who doesn't have at least one Super Bowl ring, but this season he has passed for 4,944 yards, 38 touchdowns and only 7 interceptions, all career bests.
Rodgers, of course, is an interesting story in that coming out of high school he had one offer and that was to be a walk-on at Illinois. He was 5-10 and no one knew his growth plates had not closed and he would add 4 more inches. He had a stellar career at California, and he was taken in the first round in 2005 by the Packers, with the 24th pick, and backed up Brett Favre for three years. He won his Super Bowl five years ago.
The Steelers took Roethlisberger with the 11th pick of the first round in 2004, and he won the first of two Super Bowls for Pittsburgh at age 23, the youngest to win a Super Bowl.
Roethlisberger thrives outside the pocket in what he calls back-yard football.
Then there's New England's Brady, who used a 45-31 victory over Arkansas in the 1999 Citrus Bowl to launch himself to the sixth round of the NFL Draft, the 199th player selected, but became a starter in his second season with the Patriots and has played in six Super Bowls, winning four.
Not sure if this Sunday's games can be as exciting as last Sunday's, but the quarterback play should be exceptional.
Sports on 01/17/2017